Dr. Michele Kruger completed her Bachelors, Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Civil engineering at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. Both her Master and Doctorate degrees focused on aspects of municipal water treatment. She is a professionally registered engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa, where she also previously served as deputy chair of the Communication and Information committee.Michele specializes in Water and Waste Water Treatment. She is currently an Associate Director at CSVwater where she is in charge of various water and waste water treatment projects. CSVwater forms part of the Nextec group of companies. The company profile can be viewed at www.nextec.co.za.Michele is a previous Board Member of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) and has been involved on various CESA committees including the Marketing committee and chairing the Quality and Risk committee. Michele has been part of FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) committees since 2007. She chaired the FIDIC Young Professionals Forum, served on the FIDIC Sustainability committee and chaired the FIDIC Capacity Building Committee. She is currently a Mentor for the FIDIC Young Management Training Program that develops the top young engineers from around the world and as such is a FIDIC accredited trainer in Business Development. She helped launch the CESA Women’s Forum and chairs the FIDIC Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.As a young engineer Michele won the Best Paper by a Young South African in the field of Water Science and Technology awarded by the UK Federation for Water Research for her doctoral research. She also won the title of "Young Engineer of the Year" and was later recognized by the Women in Civil Engineering Award sponsored by Building Women Magazine, ABSA and the Department of Public Works of South Africa.In 2017, Michele was invited and appointed as Director of a company called Effecting Change (Pty) Ltd. Effecting Change was established in 2017 and the team comprises successful entrepreneurs, dynamic and visionary leaders, and industry experts in a multitude of relevant fields. Sharing a common purpose, the team strives to facilitate the development of future leaders and entrepreneurs, with a special focus on women and youth. The company profile can be viewed at www.effecting-change.com.Michele is also conducting research in the field if Women in Engineering for the Postgraduate School of Engineering Management at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).Michele has a great passion for engineering and the development of young talent and women in STEM and hopes to make a difference through giving back. Dr Hannelie Nel is Managing Director of Tennelli Industries (Pty) Ltd, a company that focuses on innovation in engineering, technology and education. Tennelli addresses critical concerns inherent in current design and optimization practices, whilst supporting people centric issues impacting industry and finance by focusing on value creation in the areas of cost and quality systems. Hannelie is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa, and her company profile can be viewed at www.tennelli.com. In May 2018, Hannelie was nominated and elected as Non-Executive Board Member of Denel, a state-owned company of South Africa under the auspices of the Department of Public Enterprises and Minister Pravin Gordhan. And in July 2018, the Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering (SAIIE) awarded her with lifelong Honorary Fellowship in recognition of her contribution to Industrial Engineering. In 2017, Hannelie was invited and appointed as Director of a company called Effecting Change (Pty) Ltd. Effecting Change was established in 2017 and the team comprises successful entrepreneurs, dynamic and visionary leaders, and industry experts in a multitude of relevant fields. Sharing a common purpose, the team strives to facilitate the development of future leaders and entrepreneurs, with a special focus on women and youth. The company profile can be viewed at www.effecting-change.com.Hannelie also serves as Senior Academic and Researcher in the Postgraduate School of Engineering Management at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). She has published over 40 academic peer-reviewed papers including books; and has delivered several keynote addresses. Hannelie holds a DEng in Engineering Management, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and a BEng in Chemical Engineering. She has 20 years’ experience in business and academia and was a former Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at UJ. Hannelie is the founder and current ex-officio Director of the UJ-Group Five Women in Engineering and the Built Environment (WiEBE) Programme. WiEBE was established to support, empower and advance women in engineering and the built environment; and to raise awareness of gender parity in companies. The non-profit organization can be viewed at www.wiebe.co.za. In both 2017 and 2018 Hannelie was nominated for the prestigious Professor Kris Adendorff Award for outstanding Industrial Engineering professional by the Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering (SAIIE). Hannelie is the former President and an Honorary Fellow of the SAIIE, and serves on the Board of the South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE) and the TechnoLab at UJ. Previously she served as Strategy Manager and Board Member of the Metal Casting Technology Station for eight years, a technical Centre of Excellence established by the Department of Trade and Industry through the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) for the foundry industry in South Africa. During that time Hannelie applied for and received funding to establish a second technology station in Environmental and Process Engineering. She also established an international dual Masters programme with Freiberg University in Germany. In 2017, Hannelie was invited to join the International Women’s Forum, a global organisation in support of senior business women. She joined the Institute of Directors in 2016, and is an international author and speaker with two published two books to date. Notably her book titled Leadership and Agency by Women Engineers in South Africa was published in 2015. In 2014 she was selected as Finalist in the Standard Bank Top Business Women Awards. Other awards include the 2013 WiEBE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Women in Engineering; the 2011 IEEE WIE Award for Human Capital Development in Science, Engineering and Technology; and two SAIIE awards for the promotion of industry and academia liaison.
